A Shock'n'roll tour de force

Ben Bentley hears of a hectic life on the road.

He has furnished Lemmy from Motorhead with toilet paper in the legendary rocker's hour of need, been used as a human fish in a demonstration of angling, rock'n'roll-style, and has even been on the wrong end of some backstage antics which cannot be repeated in front of a family audience.

For James Hay, aka Bob Slayer, formerly from a sleepy village in the Corvedale, life is full of surprises.

The one-time Ludlow School student and champion point-to-point rider now lives the rock'n'roll life as it's supposed to be lived . . . faster off a horse than on.

As the manager of Japanese rock band Electric Eel Shock, one of the most raucous outfits on the planet, 38-year-old James has travelled the planet, meeting and playing up with some of rock's most outlandish stars.

His journey has taken him from the tranquillity of the tiny village of Aston Munslow to maximum decibel levels in 30 countries around the planet, including Japan, America, Canada, Italy, Spain, Holland, Germany, Sweden, Canada and Australia.

He might be meeting top rock bods one minute and joining in the revelry the next. That's why he's got two names: James Hay in the day, and Bob Slayer at night.

The turning point came in the early 1990s when a promising horseriding career faltered.

"I'm not small and in the end I could not cope with keeping the weight down," he says. Then he had a bad fall and crushed two vertebrae.

"I was forced to quit and it was a real blow because it was my passion. It was always something I wanted to do from a young age."

In 1992 he moved to Hereford, working in any job he could find: estate agency, hanging live chickens, forklift driving and working in directory enquiries.

"But I was never a very good employee and couldn't keep any jobs - I settled down to what at the time I did best - I became an 'unemployed alcoholic'. I supported myself by buying and selling houses which sometimes I painted a bit."

By the late 1990s he'd had enough. "I thought, I'm going to do a Dick Whittington and go down to the city. I actually went as a nanny then got a job in recruitment and started promoting gigs at the Barfly and Borderline venues."

He began mixing in musical circles and started writing for music magazines.

His big break, however, came in January 2003, when he interviewed Electric Eel Shock by e-mail. The band were at the time touring and making a name for themselves in America.

"The next thing I know they turned up and slept on my floor in Mile End, East London - it was quite a large turning point."

James had booked them to play at a venue in Highbury, a two-tier hall where, in the downstairs area, half of London's influential music business was assembled to watch another group. By chance one of them peeped their head round the door upstairs and the rest followed.

The next day James had secured the group interviews with Kerrang, got them a prestigious Radio One recording session and there was interest from MTV.

"The band turned round and said to me 'You should come to America, we like you'," says James who didn't need asking twice.

From then on the world was their oyster. James managed the band and helped drive them to venues around the globe. The crazy world of rock'n'roll? Bring it on.

"I'm James Hay in the day and I become Bob Slayer at night. When I was writing I was going under the pen name Johnny Mango but that was when I was into indie music. I was bored with Johnny Mango and he didn't seem to fit the bill.

"One night I became Bob Slayer after many drinks. The next day I was in Bristol, went into a guitar shop, bought a guitar with in-built speakers and went busking.

"I couldn't play, but I went out as Bob Slayer doing really bad guitar and was paid by shopkeepers to move on. I've done it since in Covent Garden and I still can't play."

His role model is the legendary late great Peter Grant, who managed Led Zeppelin with an iron rod.

James's job has brought him into contact with some of his idols - often in unusual circumstances. Backstage at a festival in Berlin, while touring with The Bloodhound Gang, he recalls: "I went to the backstage toilet and pushed the door and there's a grunt and someone saying 'pass me some toilet paper'.

"I found some toilet paper and passed it through. A few moments later out walks Lemmy and he just grunted again and walked passed - I just passed Lemmy some toilet roll, I thought."

Touring has also brought him into contact with the legendary Iggy Pop and the Stooges with whom his band toured. "We even once had little Mark Owen of Take That as our support band, which was very odd indeed," he says.

And once he found himself kissing Mrs Awa of Finnish Eurovision Song Contest winners, the literally monstrous Lordi.

James is currently jetting off on a world tour with Electric Eel Shock where the story of excess and debauchery will no doubt continue. But he still harbours a secret desire for some sort of homecoming.

Says James: "I've got a great passion to get the band playing in Ludlow sometime - maybe at the castle."

A sedate affair? Probably not.